Are Magical Thinking and Superstition Healthy? Magical thinking persists into adulthood and superstition into the modern era because of their ability to offer comfort and a sense of control over things that are beyond human control. The belief that you will never be in an accident, because you are charmed, provides comfort beyond that offered [...]
If I Have Diarrhea, What Is Causing It? Diarrhea can be due to • medications • inadequate dietary fiber • changes in your diet • radiation changes to the digestive tract •chemotherapy-related changes in the intestines or colon that cause poor absorption of food •cancer-related changes in the intestines or colon that cause poor absorption [...]
What Causes the Aftereffects of Radiation Therapy? Many factors contribute to the aftereffects often seen in the first year or so after radiation. Radiation causes damage to rapidly dividing tissue in the parts of the body exposed to the radiation such as the lining of the digestive tract, the lining of the airway and the [...]
Checkup anxiety is the experiencing of anxiety, irritability, sleep disturbance, or increased somatic symptoms prior to a routine checkup. A man who was treated successfully for lung cancer gets chest pain a few weeks before every annual checkup. His pain gets worse as the checkup approaches and disappears after his test results document his continued [...]
What Are the Benefits of Exercise While Recovering from Cancer Treatment? There are many potential benefits to exercising. Exercise • increases how much you can do (your functional capacity) • minimizes or prevents disabilities associated with treatment and with being out of condition • preserves muscle mass, strength, and endurance • improves circulation • possibly [...]
Rapacious, insensitive people find the elderly, who are suffering from the degenerative diseases and who have a negative attitude to ageing, easy victims. Quacks and tricksters have battened on to the old, relieving them of their money, but not of their complaints, for centuries. They still do. Beware of them and their nostrums. There is [...]
The period of instability in middle age has been termed the male menopause. The term is based on the fact that women, between the ages of 45 and 55, reach the menopause – which means that their menstrual periods cease. But the menopause has come to describe far more than that. It is used to [...]
In most cases this treatment is curative, but since gonorrhoea may lurk in the body it is essential that you re-attend the doctor, or the hospital clinic, for follow-up. Seven days after receiving the penicillin you pass a specimen of urine, which is examined by the doctor, who also takes further smears from the urethra. [...]
Some therapists recommend that for the next twelve months the woman should use the squeeze technique every third time the couple have sexual intercourse; but at other times they have the freedom to experiment and adopt whichever sexual position most pleases them. A useful time for reinforcing the new sexual learning is during the time [...]
As pregnancy advances, with its attendant minor discomforts, many women are concerned that their increased fatness, lethargy, distended abdomen, and pendulous breasts may adversely affect their man’s love. The way a man can reassure his partner is to kiss and cuddle her and to be interested (as he should be) in the continuing pregnancy and [...]